This invention relates, generally, to the field of apparel which may be used to provide information of a specific nature to a wearer, and more particularly to a running shoe which employs a force sensor in order to enable a microprocessor located within the shoe to receive data from the force sensor and to perform real time force analysis calculations, so as to permit the display of the results of such calculations on a convenient display device.
By way of background, in recent years, the field of athletics has benefitted greatly from the increased use of electronics in combination with traditional sporting gear and sportswear. In the field of baseball, for example, the radar gun and high speed video camera have been used to measure a pitcher's speed and record a pitcher's motion in an effort to provide coaches with the information needed to perform analysis necessary to train a pitcher to pitch more efficiently and with fewer injuries. Other examples include the use of high technology systems to record the movement of an athlete in, for example, the sports of tennis and golf and to use these records, once again, perform the analysis necessary to improve an athlete's performance while reducing injury.
Coupled with these technological advances has been a desire by each athlete to know as much about his or her personal performance, in as close to real time, as possible so as to enable these athletes to make adjustments to their individual movements and motions while engaging in their particular sport or activity. It has been determined that one area where feedback to the athlete would be most desirable is the area of specialized sports footwear, such as running shoes or sneakers.
In the sport of running, one early attempt to develop a sport shoe which would enable the wearer to get feedback on his or her performance, was the PUMA RS Computer Shoe, a running shoe which contained the circuitry for a simple pedometer coupled with a real time clock. This shoe is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,394 to Cavanagh. As discussed, after an initial shoe training period, runner then uses the shoe by activating the shoe at the beginning of his or her run and then stopping the shoe at the end of the run. After completing the workout, the runner then connects the running shoe to a microcomputer, through a cable, by way of a data port physically molded into the rear of the shoe. Then, by using software running on the microcomputer, the information stored in the shoe during the run (such as time and distance) down loaded across the data port and displayed or available for use in other calculations. In this way, the runner can record, on a daily basis, the distance travelled, speed and time elapsed for each training session.
One obvious disadvantage of such an arrangement is that the runner has to wait until he or she has completed his or her training session before data can be down loaded from the shoe and properly analyzed. Another obvious disadvantage is that the runner must also have access and be near a microcomputer before any data may be analyzed. In addition, since the Cavanagh shoe measures only distance travelled in relation to time, the running shoe of the prior art does not provide the runner with any information which is not also available through more traditional (and less expensive) means. Finally, the Cavanagh shoe is limited to measuring one foot strike (a binary value) at a time. Since this sensed footstrike parameter is binary (either on or off) the only dynamic information available for further processing is time. This is because the Cavanagh shoe does not measure force.
It is noted that the specific use of force sensors moved into specific medical shoes has been noted in an effort to allow technicians to perform the analysis. This work has been performed by the Tech-Scan company of Boston, Mass. However, in this case each sensor was hard wired directly to an outboard computer, rendering its application inappropriate to the needs of the present invention.
Accordingly, it has been determined that the need exists for an improved running shoe which may be used to measure the force applied to the sole of a running shoe, and then transmit force profile information from each of the left and right shoes, without the use of interconnecting wires, to a small display device which may be worn, like a watch, on the athlete's wrist. By carefully measuring, transmitting and displaying such force profile information from each foot, an improved running shoe is provided which, in addition to measuring foot strike and providing associated pedometer functions, may also be used to measure and display the force profile sustained by a wearer's foot for the purposes of training as well as for the purposes of monitoring shoe wear.